Two days ahead of the opening of the first Apple Store in Singapore, the company has provided a press preview of the interior.

One notably missing feature is the glass staircase which has traditionally been a signature design element of Apple’s retail stores. There is instead what is being reported as a stone staircase but may be a ceramic one. This design was first seen in the Nanjing store in China, and appears to be destined for the refitted 5th Avenue store in NY too …

Apple’s first retail store in Singapore has been partially unveiled, providing the first official confirmation of the long-rumored Orchard Road location.

It was back in 2015 that Apple confirmed that it was opening a store on the island. At that point, the location wasn’t known, though there were strong signs pointing to the location on Orchard Road, the main upmarket retail area in the country …

After an initial Amex-only launch last month, Apple Pay is seeing a full roll-out today in Singapore, with Visa, MasterCard and five major banks on board. This makes Singapore the sixth country to get Apple Pay, after the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and China.

Apple Pay vice-president Jennifer Bailey told The Straits Times: “Now, almost everyone can leave their wallets at home. Apple Pay will be a natural extension of what users have been doing at payment counters” […]

Citibank, HSBC, ANZ and Maybank still do not work with Apple Pay [but] Ms Bailey said Apple is working to bring more banks on board.

Singapore was a good target for Apple, as contactless payment is already extremely well-established in the country …

Apple Pay is now available in yet another country. Apple today has updated its website and Apple Pay support page to reveal that the service is now available in Singapore. Through a partnership with American Express, users in Singapore can now take advantage of the company’s mobile payments solution.

While retail head Angela Ahrendts last year confirmed an earlier report that the company would be opening its first Apple Store in Singapore, she didn’t reveal the location. The address had, though, been reported as 170 Orchard Road in an email from a fitness company advising that its branch there would be closing to make way for a new Apple Store.

Photos posted by iPhone Hacks appear to show work underway at the address as the windows are covered. While there’s still no definitive evidence that this is the location, it looks like we may not have to wait too much longer before we find out.

Apple announced last year that solar energy will power all of the company’s operations in Singapore, including the new store.